DSOP Main Event Deep Stack

Tommo quoted in the early morning of the 21st of June how the sun was rising yet the sun was setting on DSOP; this was going to be the last DSOP of all time at Warwick University. This was definitely going to be a sad day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most people, including me, look forward to the DSOP events where the structure, the banter and the players are of a fairly high standard. The Main Event was a £50 Freeze out with 11 runners, 25k in chips meant this was going to be an awesome tournament with plenty of moves and plays!

Ok as University is over now I am going to go into as much detail as possible of my reads and how they play. I was in seat two so I will relative to what I was thinking after the seat draw, as position is so vital certain players in different position totally changes my read of them and how to play against them.

Seat One – JD – Ok I have position of JD and he is not afraid to three barrel against me, which means I can flat call with big hands and hopefully get paid off later down the line.
Seat Two – ME!!!! Great Poker Player!!!! And Great Blog writer!!!!!! (I heard!!)
Seat Three - Sam Granger – Now here is a tricky player!! He is certainly a nice guy but can be very unpredictiable and do some crazy stuff! I heard he likes to min raise A LOT!!! The problem in this tournament which I did not like was that he was on my left, because he calls a lot pre flop, so I find it difficult to know where I am, as his range is sooooooooo wide.
Seat Four – Saef – Again calls a lot and unpredictable player, tends to be quite tight and waits for cards, so definitely can exploit that later down the line when I am on the button when the blinds are higher, he also likes to see more cards and keep the pot small but he does like to defend his big blind!!!
Seat Five – Gary Fernades – I think this was his 1st DSOP and knows the game very well but for some reason I seem to have a strong read on him, he tends to give this funny look when he is up to something funny, so I would look to play pots in position with him, but he can be very aggressively and pots can get quite big against him.
Seat Six – Guv – Well I know how he plays and I tend to play quite tight against him and bet big when I have it, as he likes to make ‘classic calls’
Seat Seven – Jagger – Who I find very difficult to play and we never normally clash against each other, he is more than capable of getting his chips in at any moment with the nuts or the nut low!! (no matter how much is in the pot), which makes him a very dangerous player in my mind!!
Seat Eight – Flash – DSOP player of the year last year and in the lead this year, I needed to win the £50 freeze and for him to come at highest in sixith place, so I had to agenda in this tournament, to win it but also try and pick some chips of flash, this has to be a –ev move in terms of this tournament as I find out later.

Seat Nine – Tommo – Again a very tough opponent who can get his chips in, someone I like to stay clear off in pots, especially early on when we are sitting
very deep stacked.
Seat Ten – Dave – Who likes to play a lot early and play basically any two cards in the 1st 3 levels, he likes small pot poker and I am happy to tangle with Dave
Seat Eleven - Mitesh who likes calling a lot but can be dangerous with a lot of chips.

The tournaments started and I did not really get too involved, I played rounders earlier in the day and I was really tired. As it was 11 handed I thought this may help, I basically put my head down on the table I switched off for the 1st 30 minute level. Early on with 11 players I folded a lot, trying not to call with 55s and 66s. I then woke up in the 2nd level and decided to play a pot, also picking up KK helped! Flash limped and I raised with my KKs and Sam called and so did Tom as the blinds folded. The flop is Jh Ts 9s, not a great flop for KKs especially given the range of hands I am getting called by in the early levels. Tom checks and I decide to check thinking a check raise would help me find out where I am rather than a bet followed by a call. Sam bets out and Flash raises but a small raise about 2.5x Sam’s bet. I then decide to re raise to find out where I am. I do so and Sam folds and Flash thinks and calls, at this point I put him on bottom set or maybe a big draw. The turn is a check and we check check, the river is another blank and he checks, I normally value bet here but I decided to check to keep the pot small and not be out played by the hand and I cannot think of too many hands that call me in this spot on the river which had also called the re raise on the flop, I win the pot and Flash mucks his Ks5s.

I then decided about 20 minutes later to play a pot. Tommo limps, I limp with Ktoff and another calls, Gary in the small blind raises it up, Tommo thinks for a while before folding and Gary did not seem to happy that Tommo was thinking to re raise or call, so I decided to call with position and there was some vibe I got from Gary that he was up to something. Everyone folds and its two to the flop. Flop is Ah 9h 8c. Gary fires out and I quickly call, thinking to take
this away later, the turn is a 7, which gives me an up and down, but I was really drawing to my bluffing outs, which is the hearts. Gary then fires out another big bet, which seems strange, why is he betting so much? Could he possibly have something like KQ? or a small pocket pair? I do not think he fires so much out with AK or a set because he loses his customer and may make the pot to big with AK. I decide to call thinking in my head I have a ‘flush’ draw and a straight draw with position. The river is a heart and Gary checks, I have about 16k back and the pot was about 12k, I fire out two 5k chips, Gary thinks for a while and eventually mucks, he claims he had KQ but we will never know!!

Dave Lu also lost a big pot where he ‘misread’ his hand for a set against Gary AK on a AK2xx board where Dave thought he had 22, but turns out he had 23! Opppps!

Rob Jagger also picked up some chips of Tommo after he re raised all in on the river with T high on a A J J 5 3 board. Flash Jagger Gary and Mitesh were the early chip leaders picking up a lot of big pots, while I was somewhere behind them and the rest not doing so great.

Dave got knocked out when it was SB vs BB against flash, where flash flopped a set and Dave moved in on a bluff with Ace high.

Everyone seemed obsessed with re raising each other pre flop and a lot of squeezing going on with these deep stacks, I tend to like to play more flops with a lot of chips as I think I have a better edge with a flop game than pre flop. I think people got carried away with this, hence why I think Guv went out, he re raised Mitesh with AJ and Mitesh shoves and Guv makes the call, which I think is pretty bad, he claims he is ahead of Mitesh’s range, which is ridiculous!! Mitesh min hand is JJ+ imo and AQ+. Mitesh had AQ which at the bottom of his range. I just think the table got the best of Guv there.

JD Flash and Sam got in a big pot which saw Flash raising, JD re raising with AK, Sam moving in with JJs and Flash thiking for a while and then moving in with KKs and JD thought for while before calling. So AK vs KK vs JJ, with a K high flop Flash knocked two players out!!! Not good for me in terms of player of the year and especially considering the tournament it self you never really want to see Flash with too many chips!!

I found myself quite short after playing a lot of pots with Flash trying to take him down a notch but that had the opposite effect and chipped him up more, my 24 and 35 were just not working!!
There was 6 of us left and I was in trouble, I got lucky by raising with JT and Saef moved in with KJ and I had the odds to call, I hit a straight and Saef goes busto, this was definitely a double edge sword situation as by knocking Saef out I got some nice chips but with Flash still in it also meant I could not win the Tinoyta player of the year.

So it was between me Mitesh Gary Flash and Rob all with chips to play, I got involved more and raised a lot of pots and with the antes in play the pots were definitely worth taking. I won a nice pot with AJ when I raised and Gary re raised, I thought for a while and decided to shove and he folded.

Mitesh got short and pushed with 22 and Flashed knocked him out with AT, Gary was next to go when I called his allin with 66 and he showed AJ, I called as if I lost the pot I would still have an average sized stack. I won a flip and Gary goes out on the bubble

.
Then three way we got some action going, a lot of allin and double ups, Flash and and Jags got involved in a big pot, Flash raised with Q9 and Jags called in the Big blind, Flop 8 6 T, Jags lead out and Flash moved in, Jags thought for a while and makes a great call with QJ high, unfortunately greats calls do not always get paid off and with a J on the river Flash doubles up. Jagger then moved in with AK and Flash calls with KT and I call with AQ, no pairs for anyone
and Jags triples up!!

I am in the chip lead with taking a few uncontested pots, Jagger moves in with Q9 Flash then shoves with A9 and I look down and see AK, and make the call. The Q hits and Jags triples up again, I take the side pot and knock Flash out.

It was me and jags heads up, I did not expect this to last long, jagger is very aggressive and it was 4am. 1st hand in a pick up 99s and raise, jagger moves in and I call, I don’t like to flip but he does the same with lower pairs and A rag, but he has QJ and we are off to the races, I win another flip, take £275 and take down DSOP main event!!!

Its been a great three years at DSOP and its sad that it is coming to the end. I definitely feel that playing with great players and with a great structure has really improved my game, we are not always playing with a lot of money but it is always interesting playing with the same group of people where you can discuss the hands later and really improve, would like to thank everyone that has played DSOP in the last three years and I hope I can host some more
fantastic games in the future!!!!

Dave Lu ‘Having run PokerSoc during the baby years of DSOP, it’s been pretty awesome to see the growing popularity of DSOP. Each week there are at least a handful of people on the waiting list, complimenting the PokerSoc schedule by offering higher buy-ins and more challenging fields. I personally loved the slow and consistent structure of the tournaments. This provided great practice for structures more commonly seen in major buy-in tournaments. No doubt many former DSOP attendees will find this useful in the future. Long-live DSOP!!!!'

Thomas Grundy 'I'd just like to say thanks to Doshi for running DSOP for the last three years.I think that DSOP offered something a little different to poker soc, with thehigher buy-ins and smaller fields. I always looked forward to playing thesedeeper events, and think that the standard of play has not only helped improvemy game, but has also prepared me for some of the bigger live tournaments.Winning DSOP for the last two years is an achievement I am very proud of,and I can honestly say that I will miss playing the events next year.'

DSOP 2005

1) Dhruv Doshi - 1040
2) Alex Lukin - 870
3) Guv Singh - 853

DSOP 2006

1) Tom Grundy - 1485

2) Dhruv Doshi - 1257

30 Jamie Brown - 1211

DSOP 2007

1) Tom Grundy - 2456

2) Dhruv Doshi - 2315

3) Mitesh Desai - 1766